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Faculty & Staff

John McConnell, PhD

Director, Center for Health Systems Effectiveness

Dr. McConnell is a health economist whose research has focused on state health policy, behavioral health, and quality improvement. His current work includes a study of the uptake and effectiveness of Lean and related management practices in more than 600 hospitals, and an economic evaluation of Oregon’s transformation to Coordinated Care Organizations.

Benjamin Chan, MS

Benjamin's primary responsibility is to manage and analyze CHSE's datasets from the State of Oregon's All Payer All Claims (APAC) Reporting Program. His other responsibilities include data analysis on projects originating from the Oregon Health Authority. Benjamin also administers the CHSE data analysis server.

Christina Charlesworth, MPH

Christina came to CHSE in 2015 from the epidemiology track at Oregon State University. Her prior research focused primarily on prescription medication use among older adults, including examination of characteristics associated with polypharmacy, national trends in prescription drug use, and the impact of functional status on outcomes among older adults receiving antihypertensive therapy.

Jonah Geddes, MPH

Research Specialist

Jonah works on OHSU Healthcare-mission projects, including quality improvement and evaluation of evidence-based clinical practices. A native Oregonian, Jonah came to CHSE from the research track at the Dartmouth Institute. His interests include embedded operations research and health systems transformations through applied Lean methodology.

Peter is a health economist studying the health system transformation in Oregon and the impact of federal health reform on individuals, employers, and the states. In addition, Peter investigates health insurance theory, methodological issues, and lectures in health economics courses at OHSU.

Lorie Jacob, ScM

Research Specialist

Lorie focuses mainly on executing internal OHSU Healthcare research projects, performing analyses on electronic medical records and hospital financial data. Lorie came to CHSE in March 2012 from the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center, where she participated in the design, analysis, and publication of research related to disparities in access to kidney transplantation.

Hyunjee's research focuses on health care providers' behavioral responses to payment incentives in the context of the US health care systems. Her recent work explores how home health agencies responded to the Medicare prospective payment system in the 2000s. She is also interested in the health care market, health care cost and quality, long-term care, and aging.Curriculum vitae

Nicoleta Lupulescu-Mann, MS

After completing her masters degree in statistics at Portland State University, Nicoleta spent several years in clinical reporting for a neighboring health care system. She joined CHSE in 2014 and currently supports several of our OHSU collaborators with large dataset analyses.

Thomas Meath, MPH

Research Associate

Thomas provides data analysis for the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC) at the Portland VA Medical Center as well as for several CHSE projects. He came to CHSE in 2014 from the biostatistics track at Oregon State University, where his research included identifying risk factors for child and maternal health, assessing spatial environmental exposures, and evaluating hospital quality metrics.

Aaron Mendelson, BA

Aaronworks on CHSE's project evaluating the effectiveness of Coordinated Care Organizations in reducing health care costs and improving quality in Oregon. Previous to that, he worked at a local safety-net clinic addressing issues of access and coordination.

Stephanie Renfro, MS

Stephanie is a statistician with a background in measuring and reporting health care quality. Her current work includes evaluating the effectiveness of Oregon's Coordinated Care Organizations in improving the quality of care while simultaneously reducing the growth rate of Medicaid spending. Prior to joining CHSE, Stephanie spent four years at the Oregon Health Care Quality Corporation, where her work included the calculation of quality ratings for health plans offered through Oregon's insurance exchange, Cover Oregon.

Ruth Rowland, MA

Ruth promotes linkages between CHSE's ongoing projects and with our internal and external partners. Her background is in communications followed by work on a number of clinical and social-behavioral research teams.

Margaret Spurlock, MPH

Research Assistant

Margaret coordinates CHSE's study of unmet mental health and behavioral health needs in South Dakota, a project funded by the Helmsley Trust, along with serving as a project manager for the Oregon Rural Practice-Based Research Network (ORPRN). Prior to joining CHSE, Margaret worked for the National Indian Child Welfare Association, a national Native nonprofit dedicated to improving the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and families.